F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Oscar Piastri Wins Again, McLaren Overtakes Red Bull Racing

On September 15, local time, the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan was held at the Baku Circuit. Australian driver Oscar Piastri won again after the Hungarian Grand Prix and helped McLaren overtake Red Bull Racing in the constructors’ standings. Ferrari’s Monaco driver Charles Leclerc, who started from pole position, was second. British Mercedes driver George Russell is third.

Leclerc Won the Pole Position for the Fourth Year in a Row

The F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is held in a street race in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Baku has a unique landscape and culture, deeply influenced by Russian culture. It hosted the first F1 Grand Prix in 2017. As Azerbaijan has a total population of only 10 million people and a racing culture has yet to develop, watching an F1 race here has never seen crowded conditions.

The track is 6 kilometers long with 20 anti-clockwise corners and is the fourth longest track on the current F1 schedule. The width of the track is only 7 meters in 8 turns, while the long straight can accommodate three cars side by side. There are two very long straight roads, totaling over 2.2 km. Previously, Bottas drove a Williams car equipped with Pirelli tires, setting an unofficial F1 record with a top speed of 378 km/h, a record that remains to this day.

In qualifying on Saturday, Ferrari driver Leclerc continued his momentum from the previous stop, beating McLaren’s Piastre by around 0.3 seconds to win pole position in Baku for the fourth consecutive year. Another Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz Jr, is third and will start the race from the second row with fourth-placed Red Bull Mexican driver Sergio Perez. Mercedes British driver Russell and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen were fifth and sixth respectively.

McLaren Driver Piastri Won

After the start of the race on Sunday, Leclerc held the lead, Pérez overtook Sainz into third and Verstappen into fifth. A lap later, McLaren’s British driver Norris, who had started 15th on the grid, moved up to 12th. By lap 10, Norris had moved into the top ten.

On lap 13, Verstappen and Russell, who were in the leading group, led the pitting and put on new hard tyres. Subsequently, leader Leclerc also began to switch to hard tyres. Norris, who started on hard tires, held off Perez on the track after changing tires, giving teammate Piastre time to pit. When Piastri returned to the track, he was temporarily fourth, ahead of Perez.

On lap 20, at the starting line, Piastri took advantage of DRS to overtake Leclerc to become the new leader. Behind, Verstappen was chasing Norris, who finished sixth. The Brit ran 32 laps on a solid tire and was always in front of Verstappen. It took until the 38th lap for Norris to pit and change to medium tires. After returning to the track, he was 15.5 seconds behind Verstappen, but the Briton, who had the tire advantage, held on to catch up.

Piastre and Leclerc, who were in the lead, were within 1 second, their tire performance starting to decline, but the collision was still fierce. The gap between Perez in third place and Sainz behind him is gradually closing, while the distance between Perez and Leclerc is also closing. The game entered a critical moment.

With three laps remaining in the race, Leclerc, who had taken first place, had extended his lead to 2.5 seconds by this time, Piastre’s tires began to fail and he was unable to catch up. Perez and Sainz were within 1 second and Norris was behind Verstappen.

On the penultimate lap, as Perez was about to overtake Leclerc, he passed Sainz and fell to fourth. After that, a fierce chase started between the two. As a result, Perez’s right front tire collided with Saenz’s left rear, and they both hit the wall, causing damage on both sides. Norris completed the overtake on Verstappen.

Piastre crossed the line first with an advantage of 10.910 seconds and won the championship again after the Hungarian station. Leclerc, who started from pole position, finished second. Russell took the podium as both Perez and Sainz retired. Drivers 4 to 10 with respective points are: Norris, Verstappen, Alonso, Albon, Colapinto, Hamilton and Bellman. Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu finished the race in 14th place.

After this station, in the driver standings, Verstappen is second with 254 points; Leclerc is third with 235 points. In the team standings, McLaren is third with 476 points, a 20-point advantage over Red Bull and Ferrari with 425 points. Sabah are the only team yet to score a point.